The Care/Security Nexus of the Humanitarian Border

Assisted Return in Norway

Bibliographic Data

ID9954785
AuthorsSynnøve Bendixsen (0000-0003-4352-3680, University of Bergen, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume58
Issue6
Pages108-122
Publication date2019-08-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Migration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7985 • E-ISSN: 1468-2435
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/imig.12630
OpenAlexW2969463979
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited33

While Assisted Return and deportation are frequently viewed as two different return policies, the first represented as humanitarian and the latter as enforcement, this article argues that there is a continuum between these policies and that they form part of humanitarian border enforcement. Drawing on policy document analysis and interviews with NGOs and with irregular migrants, the article provides a two‐level analysis by examining how AR is presented from the Norwegian governmental perspective and how it is experienced from the Afghan migrant perspectives. The article argues that the government bases its AR policy on the need to maintain the credibility and sustainability of the asylum system, as part of fighting crime, while presenting it as a humanitarian solution. For irregular migrants, however, the experienced lack of proper asylum procedures delegitimizes return policies. Overall, the performative aspects of humanitarianism in return policies contribute to depoliticizing return

Afghan · Credibility · Deportation · Enforcement · Government (linguistics · Human rights · Humanitarian intervention · Immigration · Nexus (standard · Norwegian · Performative utterance · Political science · Sociology · Law · Migration and Exile Studies · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Public Administration

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